E1. ENGAGEMENT RESOURCE CORE El.1 NEED AND RELEVANCE TO AI/AN DIABETES PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT As described in the Background and Overview section, the Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Diabetes Translational Research (CAIANDTR) will employ Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) (1-7) as our primary conceptual framework in the development of our multistage and multilevel approach to translational research. (8)The Engagement Core explicitly addresses Reachcommonly operationalized as understanding and developing the tools to maximize our ability to engage those most in need of the interventions in question. Too, Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR)(9-14) methods, although relevant throughout, are especially critical in this Core. For more than 25 years, the faculty and staff of the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health (CAIANH) have pioneered culturally grounded health-related research in AI/AN communities. We have learned many important lessons with respect to engaging individuals, families, agencies, and tribes in the research process.(12,15-18) For example, successful research partnerships reflect the mutual interests of scientists and tribes, honor local codes governing review and approval of specific projects, build capacity in terms of economic and workforce development, take into account often unique characteristics of tribal structure and dynamics in designing studies, employ creative approaches to recruiting and retaining participants, and regularly distribute findings to a wide array of stakeholders in ways that inform current as well as future work. CAIANDTR will systematically assemble, focus, and share lessons of this nature with our Research Base. By actively helping CAIANDTR investigators to navigate the research process in AI/AN communities, we will increase the likelihood that their diabetes research is translated into locally meaningful termspractically and theoreticallythat benefits the acquisition as well as application of relevant knowledge. Other members of the Research Base will contribute importantly; Pace and Westfall of CCTSI's Partnership of Academicians and Communities for Translation (CCTSI-PACT) are noteworthy here as well as the extensive translational research capabilities of Baxter, Belansky, Dabelea, Sauaia, and others. The CAIANDTR Engagement Core brings together proven expertise in extending our Reach. Should CAIANDTR's National Research Core be funded, these lessons will be become even more widely available.